He was born in France and emigrated to the U.S. just before World War II broke out in Europe. René Défourneaux wound up back in France when the OSS recruited him for his language skills. He found working with his old countrymen surprisingly difficult; they seemed to resent the Americans who came to save them from the Nazis. Late in the war, Défourneaux parachuted into the China-Burma-India Theater, where he almost died from a severe case of hepatitis and met a rising political leader named Ho Chi Minh.